“Hello, is this USAA Auto Insurance?”
My wife’s brother, Dan, called the day before his arrival to tell me he had bad news about the car that we are keeping at his place while we discover America. I knew he had taken the car to his local mechanic because of a “Check Engine” light. Therefore, I immediately started seeing dollar signs and thinking I’m going to need to pay quite a few hundred dollars to repair an 11-year-old Volvo sedan with 100,000 miles on it — and a car Mary Claire had originally wanted to sell. But, was I way off!
Dan said the car had been totaled in a fire. Dan is a bit of a jokester, so I assumed he was kidding. I was actually relieved, because his comment meant I didn’t have any major problems. However, Dan emphasized he was serious and the car had been totaled in a fire at the mechanics’ shop. He then asked if we still wanted him to visit. To us, a car is something to get from point A to point B, and we have USAA to cover our losses — so I was not upset or unwilling to have him visit (quite the opposite, in fact).
It turns out that the small garage in Wilton, Calif., couldn’t reset the “Check Engine” light on Friday, so the mechanic kept it over the weekend. On Sunday, a fire broke out in the garage in which he stored his customers’ vehicles — the roof collapsed and all cars were totaled. How unique are those circumstances? We keep the car and leave it with Dan, he decides to leave the car over the weekend at the garage, and the garage had a major fire that destroys 10 cars!
As it stands currently, the garage’s insurer is denying liability because the fire started at a point beyond the mechanic’s control. My carrier, USAA, is contacting the other carrier, and I’ll have to see where things go. However, my family and I are RVing at MacDill’s Famcamp in 80 degree weather, our Newmar Allstar RV was just repaired and serviced and is running great, and we’re planning the next step of our trip (into Georgia). Life’s too short to worry about a car.
Tags: usaa auto insurance
